Lust, Caution
Friday, 07 Dec 2007 13:51
Tony Leung and Wei Tang co-star in Ang Lee's tense Lust, Caution
Directed by Ang Lee, out at cinemas now, starring Tony Leung, Wei Tang, Joan Chen, Lee-Hom Wang, running time 157 mins.
In a nutshell…
Controversial, slow-burning, edgy, thriller
What's it all about?
The film is set between Shanghai and Hong Kong during the second world war. As Japan invades China thousands flee to the relative safety of Hong Kong including the protagonists of Lust, Caution.
Among them are group of drama students who, having been inspired by a play about the plight of their homeland, take it upon themselves to join the resistance and plot against a Chinese official, Mr Yee, who is collaborating with the Japanese.
The young and beautiful Wong Chia Chi is charged with the task of posing as the wife of a wealthy exporter in order to infiltrate Mr Yee's household, gain his trust and attempt to lure him into position that will allow the rest of the resistance members to attack.
Mr Yee returns to Shanghai before they can strike and the group are split up. Three years later Kuang Yu Min is in an influential position within the resistance and recruits Wong Chia Chi to resume her courtship of Mr Yee.
Reluctantly Wong Chia Chi becomes Mr Yee's mistress but the result of their physical relationship has deep and far-reaching consequences for both protagonists.
Who's in it?
Tony Leung, one of Asia's top character actors, lends his considerable skill to an Ang Lee film for the first time and the film is at its best when he is on screen. His performance is subtly menacing and he skilfully depicts a character that is simultaneously respectable and loathsome in equal measure.
Newcomer Wei Tang is the mainstay of the film and shimmers under the direction of Lee, especially in the opening part of the film where her beauty is the focus. In the second part of the film she is ably handle's the film's dramatic denouement.
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Lee's films are well-liked amongst the Hollywood elite and he is likely to earn further nominations for Lust, Caution to follow up his success with Brokeback Mountain.
Lee picked up his second successive Golden Lion at the Venice film festival for Lust, Caution and has also received a Golden Globe nomination for best foreign film.
What the others say
"A mesmerising study in emotional cruelty." – Paul Arendt, BBC
"For his sheer muscular verve and ambition, Lee deserves a standing ovation." – Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
So is it any good?
Lust, Caution is a film that ultimately fails to deliver on much of its promise and it is a little too disjointed to become a wholly satisfying movie-going experience.
While there is plenty of Caution in the first hour of the film, as Lee indulges himself in a series of flowing shots that accentuate his leading lady, there is little to move the plot along.
To some extent this lull is used to act as juxtaposition to the Lust which is to follow. Many of the sex scenes were cut from US versions of the film, with censors objecting to their aggressive nature.
However what Lee is seeking to achieve with these graphic images to reveal the true nature of his protagonists. In these scenes the audience becomes privy to the brutality of Mr Yee, whose life and work we see very little else of.
The emotional and physical torture to which he subjects Wong Chia Chi reveal why the resistance are so keen to assassinate him, while the tacit participation of Wong Chia Chi shows that she has moved from seductress to being the seduced.
The film is part thriller, part romantic drama but the two narratives are both handled in such an oblique way that it is unlikely to make an impact with audiences in the same way as previous Ang Lee successes as Brokeback Mountain or Sense and Sensibility.
Despite its inaccessible nature Lee has a created a strong film that is challenging in both structure and narrative, showing that he has become one of the world's most self-assured directors.
7 /10
Dominic Beaumont
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